FADE IN:
The oldest, biggest Halloween event probably in all of the U.S.! Among the creepy fog, mazes, ghouls, ghosts and monsters, is a little show we like to call "The Chipper Lowell Experience!"
Yep, once again I'm performing at the Boardwalk Ballroom Theater in the heart of Knott's Berry Farm. The shows are very, very well, and we've got several fans catching more than one show in a single night. Thankfully my voice is holding up and I'm having a blast.
The voice thing is always a pain, as the nights are getting colder while they keep the temperature of the theater around the same level as most meat lockers. (Somehow they've tied the lighting system IN with the AC, so if you want lights, you also get a maximum wind-chill factor as a dessert topping!) Last year, near the end of the 29 day run, I would have been completely without my voice because I get rather passionate about performing and "giving my all" when I'm running around on the stage and through the audience.
But thankfully my dear friend, Adam Wylie, who is a really great actor and singer (Picket Fences, Wicked, and many many more shows...) had several juicy morsels of information on how to keep my voice in top notch shape.
1.) Water. Lots of it. Just keep drinking like you're the W.C. Fields of H2O, and when you're done, ask for another.
2.) Lozenges. Keep moving them around your mouth between shows, and if you're really talented, whittle it down like a bar of soap in the shower, and just before you go onstage you can secretly stick it in the back of your jawline so it continues to help you while you're doing your comedy sets. The fine Art of Lozenge Lodging.
3.) Did I mention water yet?
4.) NO Caffiene. Period. It will strip your throat and you'll keep needing more diet Coke to 'coat' your throat as it continues to feel more dry. Bad cycle to get into.
5.) Lots of liquids....like, uh....water.
6.) NO chocolate. Bad.
7.) NO Juices. Orange juice may get you going in the morning, but the natural acids will wreak havoc. Instead, throw the oranges into a bag and sell them at the nearest intersection and use the pocket money to buy....
8.)....water.
9.) I also have a little portable steamer which allows me to keep my nose and throat as moist as possible just before going onstage. Back in the dressingroom, hunched over the counter while taking slow, deep breaths, I look like a freak, and even a little like Dennis Hopper sniffing the gas in "Blue Velvet". But it definitely works!
10.)...Well, I'm sure you know what I'm going to say here, so, well, there you are.
We've had some really fun moments during the show this year, as with every year. One that comes to mind was the girl who was so incredibly tired that she fell into a deep slumber just before the show started. Too bad a camera wasn't on, because she became the show and when she finally woke up right near the end of my set, she got a HUGE round of applause, and she was totally shocked and confused. You could tell by her face that she was wondering exactly WHAT took place while she was sleeping. Perfect!
And not that anything "bad" happened. Just a lot of fun with the situation AS I performed my routines. Okay, there was the moment where I started balancing various objects on her head and back, playing the ULTIMATE GAME OF JENGA. (This, by the way, was something I used to do to my younger brother whenever he fell asleep on the couch and the parents were away. At one point I managed to stack 15 videotapes AND a small metal wastebucket all along his shoulder and arms. And then he flipped over, and CRASH!! Loved it!)
The crew I have this year is top-notch, as are the ushers. We also have been gathering other employees who just 'happen' to be near the theater whenever a show is starting. Great people, and we really have a blast between shows.
There are still Three weeks left to go, and if you've never been...GO! My shows are there on selected nights, so if you really want to catch one of my shows, please refer to my touring calendar in the NEWS section of my website:
CHIPPER LOWELL WEBSITE
I'm also on YOUTUBE -- Just type in my name and several videos should pop up. Please LEAVE a COMMENT if you have time. Would love to hear from you! Here's a quick link as well:
CHIPPER ON YOUTUBE
Lastly, FACEBOOK - Wanna be my friend? Again, type in my name into FACEBOOK and Voila! (And if you can't type my name into FACEBOOK, then I really don't want to be your friend anyway! : )
All the best!
Chipper : )
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
CITY OF EMBER - A REVIEW
CITY OF EMBER - A REVIEW
Just got back from a day at the movies with my son. Caught the newest 'family flick' -- which nowadays isn't as often as I wish. They're just not churning them out as much, not to mention that most of them totally miss the mark and wind up a convoluted mess.
City of Ember is one of those 'somewhere in the middle' kind of flims. The sets and production value are top-notch, but the story tends to sag here and there as it goes along. As with most mysteries or puzzles, you shouldn't find yourself ahead of the plot, but with this one you often do.
The basic storyline is that the world had decided to build an underground city called EMBER which would keep mankind alive for 200 years and then allow them to repopulate the Earth once the "disaster" is over with and everything is once again "safe". They never tell you what has actually happened to the planet, be it war, a bomb, whatever, and actually it doesn't really matter because the main thrust of this story is the attempt by two teenagers to solve the riddle of how to actually escape the city and find a way back to topsoil.
Granted, it's based on a young adult novel, but the writers shouldn't have played dumb and instead should have raised the material to match the visual imagery the movie displays. Because of interesting design of the underground city itself, and the cool look of the cavernous environment, I really WANTED to enjoy this flick, but wound up wondering every five minutes why the main characters were choosing to do one thing when most people would choose the other direction or choice to move the story along.
At one point there is a door they're trying to open which is secretly located within the bowels of all the city's pipelines and tunnels, but our heroes efforts are thwarted by the appearance of a gigantic and very hungry and angry mole (which looks great!). Once they've finally outsmarted the oversized rodent, they NEVER return to the locked door again until another 30 minutes into the movie. Huh? Logic like that will quickly turn off most viewers and this movie little by little does just exactly that.
And it is a shame, because they have a fine supporting cast including Tim Robbins, Martin Landau and Bill Murray, among several other great character actors. And given what they have to chew on scriptwise, they make do. But there is a real sense of humanity missing from the citizens of Ember and we never truly get a good idea of exactly HOW the city runs and maintains itself throughout hundreds of years. Everyone looks like extras dressed up in awkward combinations of costumes to signify they've lived under the ground for decades....except they still look like extras. We never see the details of who they are, what they do, how they survive, what their economy is like, etc.
It did make me want to read the book, though. Again, just to learn more details which weren't fleshed out in the film.
The effects in the movie are solid and beautifully created, and again the production value as a whole is splendid, but it's too much to ask of the visuals to hold up a plot that is riddled with holes of common sense.
6 out of 10.
Just got back from a day at the movies with my son. Caught the newest 'family flick' -- which nowadays isn't as often as I wish. They're just not churning them out as much, not to mention that most of them totally miss the mark and wind up a convoluted mess.
City of Ember is one of those 'somewhere in the middle' kind of flims. The sets and production value are top-notch, but the story tends to sag here and there as it goes along. As with most mysteries or puzzles, you shouldn't find yourself ahead of the plot, but with this one you often do.
The basic storyline is that the world had decided to build an underground city called EMBER which would keep mankind alive for 200 years and then allow them to repopulate the Earth once the "disaster" is over with and everything is once again "safe". They never tell you what has actually happened to the planet, be it war, a bomb, whatever, and actually it doesn't really matter because the main thrust of this story is the attempt by two teenagers to solve the riddle of how to actually escape the city and find a way back to topsoil.
Granted, it's based on a young adult novel, but the writers shouldn't have played dumb and instead should have raised the material to match the visual imagery the movie displays. Because of interesting design of the underground city itself, and the cool look of the cavernous environment, I really WANTED to enjoy this flick, but wound up wondering every five minutes why the main characters were choosing to do one thing when most people would choose the other direction or choice to move the story along.
At one point there is a door they're trying to open which is secretly located within the bowels of all the city's pipelines and tunnels, but our heroes efforts are thwarted by the appearance of a gigantic and very hungry and angry mole (which looks great!). Once they've finally outsmarted the oversized rodent, they NEVER return to the locked door again until another 30 minutes into the movie. Huh? Logic like that will quickly turn off most viewers and this movie little by little does just exactly that.
And it is a shame, because they have a fine supporting cast including Tim Robbins, Martin Landau and Bill Murray, among several other great character actors. And given what they have to chew on scriptwise, they make do. But there is a real sense of humanity missing from the citizens of Ember and we never truly get a good idea of exactly HOW the city runs and maintains itself throughout hundreds of years. Everyone looks like extras dressed up in awkward combinations of costumes to signify they've lived under the ground for decades....except they still look like extras. We never see the details of who they are, what they do, how they survive, what their economy is like, etc.
It did make me want to read the book, though. Again, just to learn more details which weren't fleshed out in the film.
The effects in the movie are solid and beautifully created, and again the production value as a whole is splendid, but it's too much to ask of the visuals to hold up a plot that is riddled with holes of common sense.
6 out of 10.
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